Milton Keynes Methodist Circuit
Methodist and Joint Churches in and around Milton Keynes
Theos, in partnership with the Susanna Wesley Foundation, investigated current trends on, and attitudes towards, dying, death, and the afterlife in the UK, and explored the role of churches and faith communities. This research focusses on understanding attitudes surrounding a “good death”, trends and practices on memorialisation of the dead, and beliefs about the afterlife. Click here for more information.
Please find below the June edition of the Circuit Newsletter.
Please send items for inclusion in the July 2023 edition to the Circuit Administrator, email office.mkmc@yahoo.com, by Wednesday 7th June.
Photos are very welcome but do get the permission of anyone pictured.
On Sunday 19th March the Milton Keynes Circuit welcomed the Vice President of the Methodist Church in Britain, Mr Anthony Boateng.
The Vice President preached at a Circuit Service held at Queensway Methodist Church that was attended by members from circuit churches and LEPs, both ministers and lay. The uplifting message preached by Mr Boateng was based on a Theme of “Revival”, with Bible readings from Acts 2: 4 – 21 read by John Careford a member of Freeman Methodist Church and a Local Preacher. The second reading was read by a Queensway Sunday school pupil Samuel Atieku who read Luke 7: 18 -28. In his address he emphasised the need for the Methodist Church both local and national to engage in Revival in order to fulfil its calling. The Vice President also commended the presence of groups such as the MCZF and Ghanaian Fellowships in the Circuit as a positive start in reviving our churches.
The Queensway Choir led the procession, with prayers from Rev Nicola Vidamour and Mrs Jacqueline Commey and the Benediction from the host minister, The Rev Edson Dube. After the service, the gathering was treated to food from different cultures represented in our churches provided generously by the Queensway Women’s Fellowship and MCZF Manyano/Ruwadzano.
Pause for thought
Hebrews 10: 25 reads “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
Circuit gatherings and services are a way of fostering the oneness in the body of Christ. We learn, pray and encourage one another in order to grow in faith.
By Rev Edson Dube
Please find below the May edition of the Circuit Newsletter.
Please send items for inclusion in the June 2023 edition to the Circuit Administrator, email office.mkmc@yahoo.com, by Sunday 7th May.
Photos are very welcome but do get the permission of anyone pictured.
A statement signed by more than 1,450 church leaders opposing the government’s Illegal Migration Bill has been handed to 10 Downing Street, saying that the government’s proposals are “incompatible with our Christian conviction that all human beings are made in the image of God”.
Read more about the statement and signatories on the Methodist Church website.
In every community, there are people who are out of sight and out of mind behind prison walls. It is important that they are treated fairly and humanely and that they are helped to change and reintegrate into society because, at some point, perhaps very soon, they will return to those communities.
So, in every community, there are also Independent Monitoring Boards or IMBs: members of the public, appointed by ministers, with unrestricted access to a nearby prison and those within it. They work with others, contributing their own experience and gaining new skills. They gain a unique insight into what can make prisons, and therefore society, a better place.
The local IMB are looking to recruit new members. If this sounds like something you would like to hear more about, then please visit www.imb.org.uk to find out more or to apply.
More information can be found here
Do you find prayer difficult, boring and frustrating? Or creative, life-giving and transformational? A set of new Methodist prayer cards offers 52 different prompts for creative prayer; different ways that we can fulfil the Methodist Way of Life commitment to “pray daily” as far as we are able, with God’s help. The cards can be used by individuals or groups, at church events onsite and online, in homes, schools and care homes. Early feedback has included: “The teenagers liked them – thought the illustrations were cute/cool and it prompted some good discussion.” “As the focus of a prayer station, at the online Circuit Day of Prayer, I got the following comments: ‘Love the focus and simplicity of the cards’; ‘Wonderful, keeping me focused’.”
Available to download as a PowerPoint or PDF version for easy use in digital meetings and church services. Or, buy a print pack from Methodist Publishing.
Please find below the April edition of the Circuit Newsletter.
Please send items for inclusion in the May 2023 edition to the Circuit Administrator, email office.mkmc@yahoo.com, by Friday 7th April.
Photos are very welcome but do get the permission of anyone pictured.
The Connexional Team and the Book Depository at Englesea Brook are setting up a recycling scheme enabling copies of The Methodist Worship Book and Singing the Faith that are surplus to requirements – for example when a chapel is closing – to be resold. This will help to support the Methodist Church’s commitment to Net Zero, and a proportion of the income from the sale of books will go to the Mission in Britain Fund to support the work of the Church.
If you know of any books which need a new home, for now please contact the publishing team at publishing@methodistchurch.org.uk.
If your church is working to help those affected by the cost of living crisis, it may be eligible for a grant. Click here to view a list of grants available.
In addition to this list, The Benefact Trust has announced funding to support charities responding to the crisis. Click here to view the details.